This invention is related to the art of pulping and bleaching lignocellulosic materials to prepare pulps for the manufacture of paper, more specifically to the use of monoperoxysulfates therein.
The use of organic peracids and their salts in a pretreatment step to improve the results obtained from standard alkaline pulping processes and as bleaches for the products of such pulping processes are known.
The present invention concerns the use of monopersulfuric acid and its salts in place of such organic peracids. The use of monopersulfates in such fashion has, to applicant's knowledge, not been previously suggested, nor have they been used in a way which would suggest to a pulp and paper chemist that monopersulfates would perform in pulping and bleaching of lignocellulosic materials in a fashion similar to that of organic peracids, or for that matter, that they may be employed under non-extreme conditions in the treatment of cellulose containing materials to assist in and improve the separation of non-cellulosic materials therefrom.